Rene Campos, a registered sex offender, is running for California’s Fresno City Council after launching a campaign focusing on safety. However, current city leaders are vowing to block his bid.
According to Fresno’s ABC 30 (KFSN), Campos looks to represent District 7, including the areas of Old Fig Garden, East Central Fresno, and parts of Southeast Fresno. He’s running against several other candidates all hoping to takeover the seat when Councilman Nelson Esparza‘s term concludes.
Choosing not to run from his past as he runs for office, Campos spoke candidly about his sex offender label. The Fresno native was previously charged with possessing child sex abuse material back in 2018. However, he says he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge in 2021. He served two years of formal probation.
Furthermore, Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters James Kus says California state law does not prohibit a registered sex offender from running for office.
“Once you leave prison, you’re on probation, you actually are allowed in California to reapply and become a registered voter again—which would then make you eligible to run, as long as you’re living in the proper jurisdiction.”
Hopeful And Current Fresno City Council Members React To Registered Sex Offender Rene Campos Running For Seat
While speaking with ABC 30, Rene Campos says after rehabilitation, he believes he’s the man for the job.
“I believe Fresno deserves leaders who are honest from the very beginning, not the end. So, going into this, I am putting my life out there. I’ve been given the chance to rehabilitate through the courts and back into the system. So, I say let’s choose somebody outside the box—somebody who knows the system from the inside out. Because me, I’ve experienced the laws that we are trying to reform right now.”
Meanwhile, several other District 7 potential candidates insist Campos should not be allowed to run, much less win the seat. One of those candidates is Nav Gurm, who says:
“I think it should be a disqualifier to serve in public office. If I’m the next councilmember in District 7 and I can’t show up to a school site, how can I best represent the people in the neighborhoods I want to serve?
There’s a lot of basic amenities [that] our neighborhoods deserve, and quite frankly need. And that’s why I’m running.”
Another candidate, AJ Rassamni, spoke out about Campos. As for Rassamni, he is a businessman whose priority is addressing homelessness in the district. He said, “I never thought I [was] going to be in politics. However, I’m a business owner, I’m a community advocate, and I’m a problem solver.”
According to The Fresno Bee, some of the current members of the Fresno City Council said they plan to introduce legislation to block registered sex offenders from running and serving on the council. During a meeting on Thursday (February 26), Councilmember Annalisa Perea said:
“While I respect anybody’s ability to serve our community, I find this quite disturbing that we could possibly have somebody of this nature within our government buildings. I think if you want to be an effective councilmember, you need to at the very least be able to go onto school campuses.”
Along with Perea, Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza, and Nick Richardson are also working on future legislation at the city and state level to limit a registered sex offender’s ability to become a councilmember. Arias said, “These are public chambers. Any given Thursday, we have kids in this room. We have families, and the last thing I want to be concerned about is whether there is a registered sex offender in these chambers.”
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